MooNEY] KMIGHATloN To TEXAS 1828 141 



of tlu> western Chciokcc iiiadc it ii eapitiil offense to negotiate any sale 

 or exehange of land excepting by authorit}' of council, and the dele- 

 gates had acted without such authority, they were .so doubtful as to 

 what might happen on their return that the Secretary of War sent 

 with them a letter of explanation assuring the Cherokee that their 

 representatives had acted with integi'ity and earnest zeal for their 

 pe()i)le and had done the best that could be done with regard to the 

 treaty. Notwithstanding this, they found the whole tribe so strongly 

 opposed to the treaty that their own lives and property were unsafe. 

 Th(> national council pronounced them guilty of fraud and deception 

 and declared the treaty null and void, as having been made without 

 authority, and asked permission to send on a delegation authorized to 

 arrange all differences.' In the meantime, however, the treaty had 

 been ratified within three weeks of its conclusion, and thus, hardly ten 

 years after they had cleared their fields on the Arkansas, the western 

 Cherokee were forced to abandon their cabins and plantations and 

 move once more into the wilderness. 



A considerable number, refusing to submit to the treaty or to trust 

 longer to guarantees and promises, crossed Red river into Texas and 

 joined the Cherokee colony already located there by The Bowl, under 

 Mexican jurisdiction. Among those thus removing was the noted 

 chief Tahchee (Tatsi') or ■"Dutcii," who had l)een one of the earliest 

 emigrants to the Arkansas country. After several j'ears in Texas, 

 during which he led war parties against the wilder tribes, he recrossed 

 Ked I'iver and soon made himself so conspicuous in raids upon tlie 

 Osage that a reward of five hundred dollars was offered by General 

 Arbuckle for his capture. To show his defiance of the proclamation, 

 he deliberately journeyed to Fort Gibson, attacked a party of Osage 

 at a trading post near by, and scalped one of them within hearing of 

 the drums of the fort. With rifle in one hand and the bleeding seal]) 

 in the other, he leaped a precipice and made his escape, although a 

 bullet grazed his cheek. On promise of amnesty and the withdrawal 

 of the reward, he afterward retui'iied and settled, with his followers, 

 on the Canadian, southwest of Fort (iibson. estal)lishing a reputation 

 among army otticers as a valuable scout and guide. ' 



By treaties made in ISi't; and ISi^T the Creeks had ceded all their 

 remaining lands in Georgia and agreed to remove to Indian Territor}'. 

 Some of these emigrants had settled along the noilhein bank of 

 the Arkansas and on Verdigris river, on lands later found to be 

 within the limits of the teri'itory assigiu'd to the western Cherokee 

 by the treaty of 1828. 'I'liis led to jealousies and collisions ))etween 



' Royce, Cherokee Xnti<m. Fifth .\ii!i. Kep. Bureau nf Ethnology, p. 248. 1888. 



»ror a sketch of Tahchee. with piirtruil.s, see McKeuney mid Hall, i, pp. 2.il-260. 1S.t8; Catlin, North 

 American Imliuus. ii, pp. ril, 122, IMI. Wa.shhurii also meutions rhe emigration Uj Texas cousequent 

 upon the treaty of 182S (Reminiscences, j>. 217, 1S69). 



